Rakaw

Rakaw Ракаў(Belarusian)
Agrotown
Coat of arms
Rakaw
Coordinates:53°58′02″N27°03′10″E
Country	Belarus
Region	Minsk Region
District	Valozhyn District
Population (2006)
• Total	2,600
Time zone	UTC+3(MSK)

Rakaw(Belarusian:Ракаў,romanized:Rakaŭ;Russian:Раков,romanized:Rakov;Polish:Raków,Yiddish:ראקאוויי,romanized:Rakavy) is anagrotowninValozhyn District,Minsk Region,Belarus.It stands on theIslach River40 km (25 mi) fromValozhynand 39 km (24 mi) fromMinsk,the capital of Belarus. Population about 2,100 (2006).

History

The area has been inhabited since ancient times, which was proven when the settlement known as Valy (Валы) was found on the riverIslach.In the 16th century, the ruins were used as a platform for feudal castle building. The Rakaw castle can be found on the map created by Tomasz Makowski in 1613. In 14th-century documents, settlements near-contemporary Rakaw are mentioned for the first time. Rakaw itself is mentioned in 15th-century chronicles. In 1465Casimir Jagiellongave Rakaw as a gift to the chancellor of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania,Mykolas Kęsgaila.In 1550, it passed to Jan Zawisza ofZadora coat of armsas a part of an inheritance.Raków was aprivate town,administratively located in theMińsk Voivodeshipof thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.In the 17th century, it passed to theSanguszkofamily.In 1686, noblewoman Konstancja Teodora Sanguszko founded aDominicanCatholic monastery, and in 1702 Kazimierz Sanguszko, voivode of Minsk, founded aBasilianUniatmonastery.

A local market in the early 20th century,Church of Saint Virgin Maryin the background

The town was annexed by theRussian Empirein theSecond Partition of Polandin 1793. The first stone castle in the town was constructed. In 1794, Russian EmpressCatherine the Greatseized Rakaw from the Sanguszko family and gave it to General Saltykov, who, however, sold it to Wawrzyniec Zdziechowski in 1804.Following the unsuccessful PolishNovember Uprising,in the 1830s, the Dominican and Basilian monasteries were closed by the Tsarist authorities.After the unsuccessful PolishJanuary Uprising,the stone castle was turned into an Orthodox church, which still exists to this day.

The Polish Zdziechowski family owned Rakaw until 1939. This period marked a time of prosperity for Rakaw: in 1843, they opened factories to produce agricultural machines. By 1880, about 16 glass factories operated in Rakaw. The village hadMagdeburg rightsand privileges. There were two watermills, a brick factory, a lumber mill, and a postal telegraph office (its ruins still remain). By the end of the 19th century, the population of Rakaw was about 3,600 people, almost 60% of whom were Jews. From 1904 to 1906, the construction of theChurch of Saint Virgin Maryand the Holy Spirit Castle was finished. It was built with donations from the local people, and is an example ofNeo-Gothic architecture.In 1915, the local citizen Nevah-Girsha Haimov Pozdnyakov organized automobile shipping between Rakaw andZaslawye,a nearby town.

Fire department of Raków in the 1930s

During thePolish–Soviet War,it was recaptured by the Poles, and with theTreaty of Rigaof 1921 confirmed it as part of the rebornSecond Polish Republic.Administratively, Raków was located in the Stołpce County in theNowogródek Voivodeshipuntil 1927, and afterwards in the Mołodeczno County in theWilno Voivodeship.In the 1921 census, 63.7% people declaredPolishnationality, 31.9% declared Jewish nationality, and 4.2% declared Belarusian nationality.

During the joint German-Sovietinvasion of Polandat the start ofWorld War II,launched in accordance to theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact,on 17 September 1939, it was the site of fierce Polish defense against the much more numerous Soviet invaders.Afterwards the town was plundered by the Soviets, and localintelligentsiaand wealthy residents were persecuted.Princess Drucka-Lubecka, wife of Polish colonel Konstanty Drucki-Lubecki, who himself was murdered in theKatyn massacre,took refuge in the town, and was aided by the local population.UnderSoviet occupationit was included within theByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.From 1941, it was occupied byNazi Germany.The Germans imposed a ban on the Polish language.On 21 August 1941,a ghettowas established in Rakaw. The ghetto lasted until 4 February 1942, when its population was herded into one of the ghetto's four synagogues and burned to death.ThePolish resistance movementwas active, including theZwiązek Młodych Orlątorganization and theHome Army.Local Polish youth later also fought against Germany in theNaliboki forest,Kampinos ForestandKielceregion.In 1944, the town was re-occupied by the Soviet Union, and eventually annexed from Poland in 1945.

Attractions

Church of Saint Virgin Mary

• Glacial conglomerate near theMinsk–Volozhin highway
• Ancient settlement
• Jewish cemetery (1642)
• Our Saviour and Transfiguration Church (1793)
• Catholic St. Ann Chapel (1862)
• Orthodox cemetery (19th century)
• Church of Saint Virgin Mary(1904–1906)
• Crypt and burial vault of Drucka-Lubecka
• Felix Yanushkevich Ethnographic museum

Notable residents

• Vyachaslau Ragoisha,translator, author of articles on the history of Belarusian literature
• Jazep Januszkiewicz(born 1959), coauthor of a book on the history of Belarusian literature, writer
• Kazimierz Zdziechowski(1878–1942), Polish writer and publicist, murdered in theAuschwitz concentration camp
• Ida Rosenthal(1886–1973), Russian Empire-born American dressmaker and businesswoman who co-foundedMaidenform
• Avraham Kalmanowitz(1887–1964),Ravof Rakov

External links

• The murder of the Jews of RakawduringWorld War II,atYad Vashemwebsite
• Rakov, BelarusatJewishGen